World Citizens - DePaul University

Constantine Bakouris: When Studying Abroad
Means Coming to Chicago
Constantine “Costas” Bakouris’ drive to
succeed was evident as soon as he arrived
at DePaul in 1962 from his native Greece.
In addition to being a full-time student,
Bakouris (COM ’66, MBA ’68) worked more
than 35 hours a week at the National Baking
Company, which supplied area restaurants with
bread and other baked goods. With characteristic
energy, he quickly worked his way from
bread-slicer to logistics manager to purchasing
director. “I was hungry for success,” he says.
Several decades later, Bakouris credits
his years at DePaul with giving him the academic foundation necessary
to fulfill his business ambitions, while teaching him some important life
lessons. “I gained a practical approach to getting things done,” he says.
“I learned that if you apply yourself, you will be rewarded, and I learned
to look at things not as problems but as opportunities.”
Bakouris’ own rewarding business career has taken him around the
world. He held key positions with Union Carbide, including managing
director of the chemical giant’s operations in Greece as well as vice
president/general manager of its European consumer products division
in Switzerland. He also served as chairman of Ralston Energy Systems and
is now an executive with Viohalco, a Greek metals trading and manufacturing
conglomerate.
A L U M N I
A B R O A D
His impressive résumé also includes serving as managing director
for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, by personal invitation from
Greece’s prime minister. Currently, Bakouris is chairman of Transparency
International Greece, the national chapter of an international nongovernmental
organization with chapters in more than 90 countries
dedicated to fighting corruption and promoting government transparency
and accountability.
Despite having “no time to breathe,” Bakouris always finds time
for his alma mater. As DePaul’s unofficial ambassador in Greece, he
coordinates alumni activities in that country and with his wife, Viky,
hosts study abroad students at their home in Athens. He is a former
member of the College of Commerce advisory board and is an active
supporter of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center. In fact, one of
Bakouris’ fondest college memories is of playing pinochle with friends,
including classmate Harold Welsch, who now teaches management
at DePaul and founded the university’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center.
Bakouris is a devout believer in the value of international study.
“With globalization in full swing, studying abroad is a must,” he says.
“Knowing different cultures helps improve your capacity to understand
the world and to communicate more effectively.”
He also thinks overseas study fosters flexibility in a rapidly changing marketplace—sound
advice he gave his son Stefanos, a 1999 graduate of DePaul.
“Studying abroad enhances your ability to cope with change and to adapt
more quickly and with less resistance, making you more competitive,” he says.
Aaron Morris: Student of the World
Aaron Morris (LAS ’03) (back row, far
right) says he first fell in love with all
things Japanese watching “Shogun,”
a TV mini-series based on the novel
by James Clavell, when he was
8 years old. Today, almost 30 years later,
he is a high school English teacher in
Fukuchiyama City, Japan, having been
well-prepared for life and work abroad by
DePaul’s international studies program.
As a DePaul student, Morris spent
two semesters in Osaka, where he went
to school and lived with an exchange family—an experience he says is definitely
“the way to go” for students serious about learning Japanese. And he
says that mastery of the language is a must for living in this unique country.
“Despite globalization, Japan is still very insular and monocultural,”
he says. The foreign population is a mere 1 percent of the whole, and
Morris is the only foreigner—student or staff member—at his school.
A devoted traveler and self-proclaimed “student of the world,” Morris
appreciates DePaul’s multifaceted approach to international studies. “My
studies included economics, politics, sociology, anthropology…a lot of
different ways to look at the world,” he says. “I am endlessly fascinated by
different cultures and the ways different nations interact with one another.”
by Barbara Storms Granner